Damian Darklord

Damian Darklord
Damian Armstrong AKA Damian Darklord AKA Darklord. Art by Erik Larsen. From The Savage Dragon #74
Publication information
Publisher	Image Comics
First appearance	The Savage Dragon #42
Created by	Erik Larsen
In-story information
Alter ego	Damian Armstrong
Species	Alien-Human Hybrid
Place of origin	Earth
Notable aliases	Damian Darklord
Abilities	Vast mental abilities, eye beams.

Damian Darklord, or sometimes simply Darklord, was a recurring villain in Erik Larsen's The Savage Dragon comic book series who would have major ramifications on the series every time he appeared.

The sub-plot that would eventually become Damian Darklord's story started in the Savage Dragon's half issue, a special issues available through Wizard magazine when the Dragons' son Malcolm was kidnapped by the Covenant of the Sword. Though the story of the Nega Bomb and its effects date back to the earliest Savage Dragon issues as part of the original of the vigilante Mace.

Larsen based the character on Thanos of Marvel Comics.^[1]

Fictional character biography

In 1997, during the Mars Attacks Image comic book event Liberty, the daughter of Superpatriot was taken hostage by the Martians, experimented on, raped and impregnated by them, but being pro-life she refused to have an abortion and gave birth to an alien-human hybrid named Damian.

At the same time she gave birth on an alternate Earth, where Darklord was defeated by The Savage Dragon and members of the newly formed Special Operations Strikeforce (S.O.S) government team that The Dragon had founded to replace Rob Liefeld's Youngblood (behind the scenes Liefeld had left Image Comics and the Mars Attacks Image and Shattered Image events were used to phase his characters out of the collective 'Image Universe'). 'Darkworld', Darklord's Earth, was dying and in order to save it he was in the process of swapping his World for the one where The Savage Dragon was then set. He was unsuccessful and was killed while trying to escape, but not before killing the Dragon's former lover Rapture.

Years before both of these events, two super-heroes Super Tough and Young Tough repeatedly fought a villain named Damian Darklord and his Covenant of the Sword. Super Tough considered Damian to be his most dangerous adversary, but neither Damian Darklord nor Super Tough were seen again after they were caught in the explosion of Damian's 'Nega-Bomb', which also scarred Young Tough and turned him into the vigilante Mace. Both were believed dead until the S.O.S met Super Tough again as a freedom fighter on Darkworld, and Darklord was revealed to be Damian Darklord. Super Tough escaped with the others and was reunited with his old partner and lover Mace.

20 issues after Darkord's debut and defeat, The Covenant of the Sword replaced The Dragon's fiancé Jennifer Murphy with a shape-shifting villain Impostor, who was killed by the second Overlord, unaware of the switch. Impostor had already impersonated Captain Mendoza and had worked to have The Dragon removed from the Chicago Police Force, the second time the Covenant had kidnapped somebody close to the Dragon as they had previous kidnapped his and Rapture's newborn son Malcolm in Savage Dragon #1/2.

A subplot of missing characters developed over the next 13 issues. These include two villains Baby Boom and Negate, She-Dragon (who was replaced with her Darkworld self, who had worked for Darklord), Liberty, and the children of various super-powered characters.

When Superpatriot went missing searching for his daughter, The Dragon and Mighty Man assaulted a Covenant of the Sword complex to rescue him. Mighty Man fought Superpatriot while The Dragon fought his wife Jennifer, whom he believed to have been killed and who had been brainwashed by the Covenant. The fight led to The Dragon confronting Damian Armstrong, Liberty's son, who revealed that Damian Armstrong, Darklord and Damian Darklord are all the same person, just at different times of Damian Armstrong's life. Damian visited numerous time periods and realities, and became convinced that the world was headed for destruction of an unspecific kind, and that only he could prevent this from happening. He had been kidnapping super-powered children, and women bearing super-powered children from other realities to build his own army, and also two villains to build a new Nega-Bomb, which he then detonates depowering most of the super-freaks on Earth. The few remaining characters with powers come to The Dragon's aid and during the battle that follows, and The Dragon fights both Damian Armstrong and Damian, killing them both.

By killing Damian Armstrong, the Dragon causes the creation of a parallel Earth, free of Damian's meddling but filled with various other problems, and becomes stuck there. This is the Earth that the series Savage Dragon is currently set on. Even though The Dragon woke up next to the corpse of Damian Armstrong, he was curiously still alive in the original Earth, and in custody of the US Government and Special Operations Strikeforce, which it seemed he was somehow mentally controlling. He was badly beaten by The Dragon's son after he apparently saw him kill a Government official and supporting character Hawkins, and died when Universo (a take on Marvel Comics' Galactus) destroyed that Earth and with few exceptions everyone on it.

Damian Armstrong is clearly shown dead in issue #75, the new world is a result of his death. In the letter column to issue #77, Erik Larsen reinforces this point with his answer to the final letter. Yet Damian Armstrong is shown alive and in the custody of the US Government in issue #101 and shown to kill Hawkins. In the following issue Hawkins is presented to Malcolm Dragon alive after he has assaulted Damian. This has never been explained or addressed in the comics' letter columns.

A more benign Damian Darklord appeared in the last issues of the Dragon Wars, commenting over the restored Kurr's (Savage Dragon's past, evil self) slaughter of all human life. Reasoning that Savage Dragon is a dangerous wildcard for the world, and explaining his former actions as attempts to stave off the ruination brought by the presence of Savage Dragon himself, he restores Savage Dragon this rightful appearance, granting him the power to go back in time and stop his Kurr-self. He then kills him, as a mean to safeguard the restored Earth security. It's also implied he transplanted Savage Dragon's mind in WildStar's body, allowing him to witness the restoration of his Earth.

Powers

Presumably all three versions of Damian Darklord must be capable of the same powers as they are the same person only at different stages of development. It is unconfirmed if Damian could travel through time naturally or required technology to do so though the fact that he could not escape Darkworld without using a teleporter and the huge amounts of technology used by the Covenant of Sword in their base points towards the latter.

Damian Armstrong had incredible mental abilities including telepathy, telekinesis, the ability to create blasts of psionic energy and use his mind to influence and control the minds others. He also has a genius level intellect.

As well as Super Strength and moderate invulnerably Darklord could shoot blasts of energy from his eyes with enough force to disintegrate a person. It also looks appears as though he could jump large distances.

Damian Darklord's exact powers are not revealed as he only appeared in one back-up story (Savage Dragon #75).

References

• savagedragon.com Official Homepage of The Savage Dragon
• Savage Dragon #75, Published May 2000, Image Comics